Washington Mystics head coach Mike Thibault has won the 2013 WNBA Coach of the Year award, according to the Washington Post. Thibault led Washington to their first playoff game in nine years on Thursday—a blowout road win over Atlanta. Thibault will be awarded the COY award on Saturday before Game 2 of the Eastern Conference semifinals.

“Washington’s Mike Thibault has won the WNBA coach of the year, said a person familiar with the situation.

He will receive the award Saturday night in Washington before the Mystics face Atlanta in the second game of the Eastern Conference semifinals, the person said. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because no official announcement has been made.

Thibault has won the award three times (2006 and 2008) now matching Van Chancellor for the most ever in league history. He also joined San Antonio coach Dan Hughes as the only coach to win the award with two different teams.”

Last season, the Mystics were rock bottom in the W in scoring, led the league in turnovers and finished with the worst record. The lone bright spot was a chance at getting a top-three pick in a draft with three potential superstars. Washington, of course, drew the fourth pick.

Despite all that went wrong for the Mystics, they started this season off right with the signing of coach Mike Thibault. The former Connecticut Sun coach is known as an offensive guru and great decision maker with personnel. Sitting down with SLAMonline, Thibault discussed the reasons why Washington was a great move for him, drafting Tayler Hill, off-season signings of Ivory Latta and Kia Vaughn and more.

SLAM: What made the Washington Mystics position right for you?

Mike Thibault: A couple reasons. I saw a opportunity to turn around a franchise that had been struggling. Also when I met with ownership, they made a commitment to me and a long-term plan to turn this team around. They made a commitment to doing this the right way.

SLAM: How important was it for you to not only be the coach, but the GM for this team?

MT: The GM part wasn’t really the most important thing to me. When I was in Connecticut, I didn’t have that title, but I did 95 percent of the player decisions. The title is nice, but it can be misleading depending on the organization. A lot of people think the GM has the final say on everything that goes on within the organization, which is not true. I stay away from the business end and PR end of things, that’s not my job. The important thing is I have the final say on contracts and all basketball decisions.

SLAM: On draft day you selected guard Tayler Hill from Ohio State. For a team that had offensive woes last year, how important was the selection of a dynamic offensive player like Hill?

MT: It was really important. It is very hard to find a big-time scoring wing in this league. You can count the dominant ones on one hand that have come out in the last five or six years. You have Angel McCoughtry, Maya Moore, maybe a little deeper with Seimone Augustus. It is hard to fill that spot. Also our needs weren’t as pressing in the post when we added Kia Vaughn.

SLAM: Does Tayler Hill have a chance to crack the starting lineup this year?

MT: I expect her to at least be in the rotation. We couldn’t use the fourth pick on someone we had to wait for. It’s up to her how big of an impact she wants to have this year.

SLAM: You guys added a couple pieces this offseason in Kia Vaughn and Ivory Latta. Ivory had a really nice year last season in Tulsa and can really sure up the PG spot for you guys. How do you plan on utilizing her?

MT: I think with us going to a NBA three-second rule, it will open up a little more space for her to penetrate. We plan on running a ton of pick and roll with her this year to get her in the lane attacking and putting pressure on teams. She can also play off the ball because she is a terrific three-point shooter. I think she will be comparable to a lot of the NBA guards to can get in the lane in the pick and roll.

SLAM: What do you expect from Kia Vaughn?

MT: Kia is a leader. I think we will have a nucleus of players who are between the ages of 26 and 29 and near the primes of their career. Two years ago she was the Most Improved Player in the WNBA. She does a lot of things very well that don’t show up on the stat sheets, like taking a charge, or a great block out and stopping another team’s good offensive rebounder from getting it. We need players like her in the locker room, who are about winning.

SLAM: This team was last in the WNBA in scoring last year. You maximized the Suns’ offensive potential last year. What is the scheme you would like to implement this year?

MT: I want them to play at a faster pace. They played at the slowest pace last year in the league which led to the lowest number of points. They were also a mediocre perimeter shooting team. That’s why you get Latta and Hill to sure that up some. I believe that pushing the ball and having your guards in an attack mentality make it hard for a team to lock in on one or two things. The thing about last year’s team was people would lock in on Currie and Langhorne and that was it. This year we have changed that because we have added more weapons to worry about.

SLAM: What are your thoughts on Crystal Langhorne? She is a force in the post. Do you think she can expand on her numbers from last year?

MT: This year we have helped her some by having better teammates around her. In many games last year she was subject to double- and triple-teams, and by bringing in these players, we will eliminate some of that. We also have seen her develop her game some away from the rim, which will also eliminate some of the double-teams there as well. We are getting her to hit the foul line jump shot and attack more off the dribble from there as well.

SLAM: The team really hurt themselves last year by committing too many unforced turnovers. How much of an emphasis will you put on protecting the ball?

MT: I always tell people in order to be a playoff team, you have to win two of the three categories each night: turnovers, rebounding and the free-throw battle. In most nights they had lost all three last year, which is not good. I expect this team to improve on that this year.

SLAM: You have had your son coaching alongside you since a young age, learning the ropes. How much growth you have seen from him over the years?

MT: He has grown up around the game his whole life. He was already a graduate assistant at Missouri by his junior year, and he has had a chance to really grow the past five years at Connecticut. Since then he has also worked at VCU and St. John’s, so he has a different perspective working with college and pro games. I think our players in Connecticut really appreciated his efforts with players individually.

SLAM: How will you gauge success with this team?

MT: I think in the short term, it will be how hard they work in where we want to take this team. We want the players to be all in and work each day on becoming better players and gelling as team, which takes time due to so many new players. As far as record, I don’t know. It all depends on how the rest of the league shakes out, but my mindset is to compete for a playoff spot and take it from there.

Initially, I was hesitant to ask Connecticut Sun coach Mike Thibault about his tragic family history with Cystic Fibrosis.

Not because I didn’t care, but simply out of respect and sensitivity.

“I’m not sure how to frame the question without seeming like an ignorant jerk,” I kept thinking, cynically.

After all, how do you ask someone who has had five siblings (yes, five) pass away from the vicious disease to talk about it? To relive it? Discussing any death of a family member is obviously difficult but having five siblings pass away? I can’t imagine…

Knowing the type of person Thibault is, I asked my question as sincere as I could.

“Mike,” I began. “I understand that Cystic Fibrosis has been a huge part of your life for many, many years. Can you elaborate on how it has affected you and your family?”

Thibault’s subsequent reply is something we, as human beings, can all learn from.

***

Cystic Fibrosis (CF) is a disease passed down through generations that causes thick mucus to build up in the lungs, digestive tract, and other areas of the body. One of the most frequently occurring chronic lung diseases in children and young adults, CF is a serious, life-threatening disorder.

Because the mucus builds up in the breathing passages of the lungs, it can cause serious breathing and digestive problems as well as negatively affecting the reproductive system. Coughing, fatigue, shortness of breath, recurring episodes of pneumonia, and lack of appetite are some of the most commonly occurring symptoms. Treatments include antibiotics, inhaled medicines, enzyme therapy, vaccines, oxygen therapy, and even complete lung transplants. Today, most children are diagnosed early on (before the age of two) and can live fairly healthy lives. The average life span for those afflicted by CF is nearly 37 years which is a dramatic increase over the past 30 years. Still, it’s a scary reality for anyone afflicted.

For Thibault, he can’t really remember a time when CF wasn’t a part of his everyday life.

“I’m the oldest of nine,” Thibault said of his family. “I’ve had four sisters and a brother pass from it. I have two sisters and a brother who are surviving and none of them have CF. My sister was the second born, the first to get CF, and she died at the age of five. I was about seven at the time. It caught almost every other kid from there on.”

Being the oldest, Thibault developed a genuine, natural sense of responsibility and obligation to help his parents take care of his siblings. Back in the 50’s and 60’s when Thibault was growing up, there had been very little research done on CF; there was no concept in the medical field that CF could be a generational disease. The mental, physical, and financial toll it took on Thibault and his parents was both strenuous and demanding.

“Life expectancy is much greater today,” Thibault said. “As time went on, the treatments have improved. Again, I had a sister die at five but then I had another sister live until 21. There are a lot of medications people can take today that will help, especially if you’re diagnosed early on. The development and funding for research is the biggest thing and progress is definitely being made.”

Thibault remembers helping his parents administer breathing and chest percussion treatments to his siblings on a daily basis to help them cough up as much mucus as possible for better air intake. This was everyday life for Thibault and his parents. Other than school and work, there really wasn’t much time for anything else.

“It’s like anything else in life,” says a humble Thibault when asked how it affected him directly. “When you’re going through it, especially when you’re younger, you don’t really think about. It’s just what you do. It’s just what is. Now, being older, I can’t imagine how my parents went through that every single day. But growing up, it’s just what you did – you had a sick brother or sister that you helped out. We were a big family so you got through it together.”

The only time Thibault remembers CF affecting him directly was when he played in a baseball or basketball game and his parents weren’t able to attend because they were taking care of his brothers and sisters. But when Thibault talks about it, there’s no remaining hurt or hard feelings; he realizes his parents couldn’t be everywhere at once and, due to his sympathy and compassion, he’d rather them be with his siblings.

“I always felt bad for them,” Thibault says as his voice becomes somber. “Both my parents and my brothers and sisters. I understood that my parents obviously wanted to be at the games but just couldn’t. That was their life, besides work. As I got older and ready to start my own family, having seen what my parents went through, I had a much greater appreciation for life when it is ‘normal.’”

Twenty-three years have passed since someone in Thibault’s family has been diagnosed with CF. But the reality and magnitude of the possibility is still there. Thibault is a carrier of CF but in order to pass it down to your children you need both parents to have a defective CF gene (his wife, Nanci, is not a carrier). Thibault says that CF is no longer something he and his family worries about on a daily basis, but they certainly are aware of it.

“I’m grateful that my kids are healthy,” says Thibault matter of factly. “My son, Eric, is a carrier but we don’t think my daughter, Carly, is. Today, my attachment to it is more with local events that I can be involved with. I don’t have the day-to-day contact like I had growing up. My wife is as involved as anybody. She’s helped chair up the teams that do walks to raise money, volunteer, help with mailings, things like that. She has been really great about it. When we got married, there were still a couple of kids in my family that still had it and she developed a connection with them.”

***

Back to the very first question I asked Thibault: Can you elaborate on how it has affected you and your family?

His honest, straightforward reply caught me off guard…in a good way.

“It helped me realize that I never have anything to complain about. Nothing. Whatever I have going on in my life can’t be all that bad.”

Thibault’s glass-half-full take on life, especially considering his childhood combined with the daunting world we live in today, is nothing short of remarkable.